Feb 13, 2017

Student Loan Debt Out Of Control

     The New York Times has an editorial today on the rapidly increasing problem of student loan debt among the elderly. The editorial urges an end to seizing Social Security benefits to pay off private lenders.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

And what is the matter with that? Did these seniors sign for the youngsters? Much as the housing bubble was created by the no-doc loans that later fell through, the student debt was freely given, freely accepted and freely spent and now nobody wants to assume responsibility for it.... It was not an entitlement.
Actions have consequences. Become an adult.

Anonymous said...

Not all students need to go to the very best school. We compared, shopped the programs for the best price. Staying locally, we were able to avoid dorm and food program costs for a good mechanical engineering program for our son. His school is ranked in the top 150, the price difference for 5 schools within 500 miles ranked higher were a price increase of almost $100K and one instance $164,000 MORE than the local college. Oddly, the hiring data for the graduates was very similar. We found out that physics and calculus rules don't change with a price tag of the university.

High school seniors are brainwashed and brow beat into attending some of these higher priced out of state schools and even told they do not get the "full college experience" by attending an in state university. We were actually told this by an enrollment person at a college visit.

Anonymous said...

Colleges are the prime culprits. They are accomplices with private lenders in promoting unsubstantiated loans. Sell unrealistic dreams to everyone even when they know that certain population of students are destined to fail given their poor academic background. Greed is the common theme on part of everyone involved. The government took opts to look the other way until the roost come home to the chicken. Deja vu all over again... Remember subprime lending in the mortgage crisis... This might be bigger. Miss Obama yet?

Anonymous said...

Not that it is always necessary, but living on a college campus away from parents is very much part of the learning experience of college. Does it cost more? Yes. Does it foster independence? Yes. Is it important to learn how to live with people very different from yourself? Yes. Is it the right choice for everyone? No. But is it sometimes worth the investment? Yes.

Anonymous said...

I started law school part-time at night. Half the class was over 40 and many were in their late 50s maybe some 60s taking out tens of thousands in debt for a career changes. I always thought it was silly. Law school on the whole is probably a bad investment for the vast majority of students but especially for these people. I would support a policy of not lending to people who don't have enough working years left to pay it back.

Anonymous said...

I was lucky I guess. I went to a state university. My Dad told me that he'd saved enough for my first year and after that I was on my own. I had worked and saved while in high school and summers off and worked a couple different jobs part time while going to university. After the first year, I lived in a cheap rooming house and subsisted on inexpensive food and little entertainment. When I graduated I had no money left but I also had no debt and I did not know how fortunate I was.

Anonymous said...

nobody has mentioned this big fact-- (google #Lowered for all sorts of writings on the topic)

a lot of these debtors did go into huge debt, but it wasn't because they all went to fancy private schools. dirtbag, evil subprime private institutions (online only, mostly) prey on vulnerable populations to get all that free Federally-guaranteed student loan money they can. Obama's administration made great strides on curbing that by requiring certain retention, graduation, employment, and payback/default rates to continue being eligible for such funding, but guess what this new admin, specifically our new SecEd wants to do to those rules?

Anonymous said...

Only big banks deserve bailouts, anything else is un-American commie. You know there is also something called aggregate demand that has a huge economic impact on our economy and all of us. When only a few have most of the dough in a society you can get something along the lines of a Great Depression. I had family that actually experienced that and I was told it was no fun. Just keep tightening the noose you brilliant alt righters and Paul Ryan onservatives until you hang us all.

Anonymous said...

the annual tuition at Oxford, the best university in the UK and arguably as great as Harvard, is under $12,000.

the price of college in the US is insane and needs to be massively reduced and/or subsidized. Bernie's view on this was unquestionably correct

Annie42 said...

A lot of these loans were incurred by non-traditional students attending for-profit "colleges," which are primarily institutions whose purpose is to suck as much $ out of the student loan system as possible, without delivering anything resembling a college education to the students. These "colleges" admit students who are woefully unprepared for their programs. They provide few if any support services that a non-traditional student needs to be successful (e.g., childcare) so even the students who might be prepared are beaten down by the logistics of attending class and end up dropping out, with a mountain of debt. The "college" doesn't care, because they've been paid and suffer no consequences.

Anonymous said...

The sad thing is that many of these people are in debt for trying to do the right thing and help their children and grandchildren. Proving the saying "No good deed goes unpunished."

Anonymous said...

Ah, guys, anybody notice that the rate of increase in university costs were purposely included in the ACA? No actual limit to the allowed increases, only the word 'reasonable'.

Anonymous said...

The Affordable Care Act and college tuition linked, I am missing something here.

Anonymous said...

Annie42 nailed it. Check out the College Board's "Five-Year Federal Student Loan Default Rates by Institution Type over Time". For profit schools' default rates are ~50% higher than the average for all school types. If you're curious, Google what's in quotes, above.

Anonymous said...

6:40, Harvard is actually free if one has a need... Just sayin'.

Anonymous said...

COME IN THIS COUNTRY as a refugee & it's all free. Then who do they owe, especially when they go to our medical schools? It is why medicine in today's world is not real medical care anymore. Many vulnerable folks just want to do better and is no reason for any for profit college. Up until the 70's, college was free to all. Now it's nothing more than a profit driven mechanism to steal more from those who still have hopes & dreams to have the AMERICAN DREAM that was taken away but it happens again and again. The VETS when going to these fake for profit schools are just another scam to rip off the taxpayers. After all we pay for it all and get the least. Somebody figured it all out to increase their profits out of the U.S. Tresury or the U.S budget

Anonymous said...

@6:40 so that's where all these Reps, SAs, and ALJs come from!

Anonymous said...

Didn't SSA used to pay law school tuition for a favored few? And didn't those people who benefited end up as AAJs in OAO? What a racket that was, if true. OAO, the gift that keeps on giving to the people who work there.

Anonymous said...

Greedy colleges are to blame. Just like healthcare. It's like people need a service to be healthy - 1. Colleges help build the mind 2. Healthcare presumably helps the body.

So let's send those trying to better themselves into bankruptcy. Backward ass thinking.